Paramount in talks to sell India TV joint venture stake to Reliance

By P R Sanjai and Christopher Palmeri

Paramount Global is in discussions to sell its stake in its media joint venture in India to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, as Asia’s richest man continues to consolidate his clout in one of the world’s fastest-growing entertainment markets. 

 

The New York-based media company has been in advanced talks to sell its minority stake in Viacom18 Media Pvt. to Reliance, said the people, who asked to not to be identified as the information is private. Talks between Paramount and Reliance are still ongoing and may not result in a deal, the people said. 

Representatives for Paramount, Viacom18 and Reliance all declined to comment.

Paramount, the parent of CBS, MTV and other networks, has been selling assets, such as its Simon & Schuster book publishing arm, to reduce debt. It’s also weighing an offer from producer David Ellison to buy out the Redstone family’s controlling stake in the company and merge his Skydance Media studio into Paramount.

Bloomberg Intelligence estimated a sale of the Viacom18 position could generate as much as $550 million that Paramount could use toward debt reduction.

Paramount shares rose 3.4% to $10.56 as of 12:30 p.m. in New York

Viacom18 has spearheaded Reliance Group’s media foray in recent years as billionaire Ambani steadily shifted his fossil fuels-led conglomerate toward consumer-facing and technology-led businesses. Viacom18 was also the vehicle through which Reliance outbid Walt Disney Co. in 2022 to win the coveted streaming rights of the Indian Premier League, or IPL, cricket tournament.

Disney and Reliance signed a binding agreement last month to merge their Indian media operations, in mounting evidence that global giants were ceding ground to local heavyweights. Reliance and its associates will have a 63% stake in the new $8.5 billion media powerhouse, with Disney holding the rest. Paramount’s stake, via Viacom18, will also shrink with the new deal.

Disney’s decision to merge with Reliance followed its struggle to retain subscribers. Ambani’s conglomerate disrupted the sports broadcast segment by streaming IPL cricket games for free in the cricket-crazy nation of over 1.4 billion people. Viacom18 signed a multiyear pact to distribute programming from Warner Bros Discovery Inc., in another recent setback to Disney in India.

Sony Group Corp., which has also fought to grow its market share in India, suffered a big blow after its merger with Filesadmin.co Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. collapsed following long-lasting disagreements with Filesadmin.co founders.

First Published: Mar 07 2024 | 11:54 PM IST